


Blackbird

by TheFanFrog



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M, Wings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-03-11 10:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13522200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFanFrog/pseuds/TheFanFrog
Summary: Matthew is a science experiment. The Professor made him to have wings and he is kept hidden away from the rest of the world where he undergoes daily testing. All he's ever known is the cold, dark basement, but what will he do when he is taken out and he meets a helpful, awesome man?





	1. Chapter 1

      _Thump! Thump! Thump!_  
     I slowly open my eyes and awaken by the sounds of heavy footsteps. All I can see is black and I feel cold metal against my skin. I try to wrap my arms around my body to warm up as I listen to the footsteps coming closer. I grope around in the darkness to find my tattered old blanket when soon enough, a door opens quickly and the tremendously bright lights are turned on. I swiftly find my blanket and cover my head with it to shield my eyes from burning. The footsteps come even closer, and then I hear the locks of my cage being messed with.  
     “It’s time for breakfast Matthew. Stop being foolish and take that blanket off your face!” I follow instructions and I look up at the Professor. He opens the door of my cage after turning his key and he places a tray of some not so appetizing food on the floor in front of me. When he’s finished delivering my meal he locks the door back up and walks away towards a flight of stairs. “I’ll be back soon.”  
     Once he's gone, I crawl over towards the plate and examine it. A bowl of cornmeal and old vegetables with a glass of water to the side. I was really hoping for some fruit today, but I guess I’ll have to do without it. I grab the bowl and tilt it over my mouth to eat.  
     This is how I’ve lived my whole life, in a giant birdcage kept away in a dark cold basement the Professor calls his laboratory. I'm one of his science experiments, along with my twin brother Alfred. The Professor created us in his lab a long time ago, about 22 years ago if I’m correct, but it’s hard to keep a concept of time down here. He created us to give us wings. I think he wanted to revolutionize a new way of evolving humans through science, at least, that’s what he told me. I myself have a pair of huge black wings that really just get in the way most of the time. Alfred, however, was a failed experiment. The Professor got rid of him, but I still miss him.  
     All I’ve ever known is this lab. In here the Professor runs tests on me daily and collects data on me. I don’t know why he keeps me away like this though. He says he wants to change the world like this, but he hides me away and won’t let anyone else know. What’s the point of all this then? I couldn’t say.  
     As I mindlessly finish up my meal, I put the dishes near the front of the cage and walk over to the little flat pillow I keep in the corner. There, I sit down cross-legged on the pillow and start to preen my feathers. I spread out my wings and I bring my hand up to my mouth. I spit out oil on to my hands, that ability given to me by the Professor, and I rub it on my feathers. I move them around and arrange them for optimal flight. The Professor doesn’t let me out to fly very often, but the days that he does are my favorite.  
     As I finish up with that, the Professor returns.  
     “Ah, good! You've finished eating!” He exclaims with a smile, “Now we can begin.” The Professor is a short fat man with a balding head and small beady eyes. He wears just anything he can find, not a typical lab coat, and he has a deep, unsettling voice. He opens my cage so I can receive my daily tests. I walk over to the hospital bed he placed next to his large desk where he keeps his equipment and I hop on. I have my blood drawn, the Professor examines my wings thoroughly, he takes my blood pressure, and I have to pee in a cup, which is my least favorite part.  
     “Now Matthew,” the Professor tells me, “I need you to fly for me right now.” I look at him with a puzzled expression. He’s never made that request before while we were inside the lad. Doesn’t he know there’s not enough space in here to do that?  
     “I can’t do that,” I tell him, “I need to be outside to fly.” At that he turns to look me in the eyes and I can see he is getting angry. When the Professor is angry, he is violent, and I don’t want to get beat today, but there is no way I can fly in this small area with how big my wings are. They’re longer than my arm span!  
     “I told you to do something Matthew,” he says in a slow, low tone of voice.  
     “But why?” I question him, “You’ve never had me do that before.”  
     “Matthew!” he yells as he slams his hands on the table. “Do it!”  
     I am afraid of him now, so I’ll have to try. There’s no wind in here and the ceiling is so close to my head, but nonetheless, I open my wings and thrust them to fly.  
      _Bang!_ I hit my head hard on the ceiling and fall down onto the ground. I don’t understand why I’m being told to do this. This is a strange habit of the Professor’s. At random times he’ll tell me to do something, and when I can’t do it and he doesn’t get any results to write down, it usually ends badly. As I watch the Professor pick up a glass beaker and stomp over to me, I know that I should expect some pain.  
     “I need you to fly Matthew!” He screams at the top of his lungs, lifting the glass, “Are you going to be a failure like your pathetic brother?” I hate it when he talks about Alfred like that, and I begin to cry. This man has stripped away any of my dignity and left me a sobbing mess.  
     “I’m not a failure!” I proclaim. “Please don’t hit me! I’ll try again!” Even though I know it’s useless, I stand up, lift myself to fly, and crash my head again. I feel a piercing headache forming and I fall back to the ground. At this point I accept my fate as I have so many times before as I feel glass shatter over my face. It burns where I know I’m cut and I can see some blood drip on the ground. I crawl into a ball and wrap my wings around myself as the Professor kicks me hard. I scream in pain and try to escape, but I feel this has become routine by now.  
     “Failure!” I hear the Professor yell as he delivers more blows. “Useless!  Worthless! Mistake!”  
     Just as I think I’m going to pass out, I hear sirens outside. I’m confused as to what’s happening, and I start to hear a ruckus upstairs. The Professor starts to panic, and he runs away from me and leaves on the floor covered in blood and glass. As my vision darkens and I can hear yelling and commotion above me, I lose my thoughts and fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note
> 
> Hello! So this is my first ever story. I like to write and I thought that I should put out my stories for other people to enjoy as well. I don't promise that this will be beautifully written, and I don't know how often I'll update, but I hope you had a good read! :) Not much happened here, but I hope to add more fun stuff in the later chapters. And yes, I do intend to make this Prucan, because that's my favorite. This is also on fanfiction.net if you want to see it there.Well then, goodbye!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew is taken into the custody of the police where he meets a friendly red-eyed man.

     “I've never seen anything like this before!”  
     “What do you think it is, a mutant?”  
     “Don't be ridiculous! They're probably fake, like they sewed them on to their body or something.”  
     “I don't know...I didn't see any stitches.”  
     My head is ringing and I can hear a couple of different voices around me. I start to wake up, and I feel around for my blanket, but I can't find it, nor my pillow. I can feel the ground shaking around me so I slowly begin to open my eyes. In front of me I see several men, I think three, each in uniform and holding large guns, sitting in front of me talking to each other. I notice that I'm in a cage, not my regular one, but a smaller yet stronger one. It seems that the men don't notice that I'm awake as they make conversation with each other, so I take the time to look around. I'm in a pretty small room and I can see another man farther ahead looking through a window and turning a wheel. I think I'm in a car, something I've never been in before.  
     As I was focused in my thoughts, it seems that the men have turned around and begun staring at me.  
     “Look at that!”, one of them hollers, “It's awake.”  
     “You think it knows what we're saying?”, another one asks. The third man, who seems to have an interesting shade of white hair and red eyes, puts on an annoyed express as he glares at the others.  
     “Why don't you stop talking about 'it’ and ask him yourselves?”, he scolds. I can hear a strange accent in his voice, like someone who's not from Canada. He turns to face me and I feel a little uncomfortable. I've never talked to anyone in my whole life besides the Professor and Alfred, and now here I am surrounded by others. “So tell me Birdie,” he directs towards me with a much kinder look in his eyes, “What's your name?”  
     I don't trust these people. I've never talked to them before and they're holding weapons while keeping me in a cage, so I don't really have a reason to. As they continue to just stare at me I start to feel anxious. I begin to breath heavily and I dart my eyes back and forth at them as I try to scoot back as far away from them as I can. I hit the back of my cage and I feel a sharp pain from one of the spots the Professor hit me. That's when I notice the bandages. I calm down and examine them, lifting my arms in front of me and feeling at my face. Someone had put them on my face and arms where I was cut with glass.  
     “So you see my awesome medical work,” the red-eyed man says as he gives me a smirk, “you were hurt pretty bad when we found you, so I fixed you up. Although, I did notice that you had a lot of former scars all over your body.” At that, his smirk fades and he gives me a sympathetic look. Realization soon hits as I find that the last thing I remember was being beat and suddenly waking up here.  
     “Where am I?”,I reluctantly manage to mutter out in a quiet voice.  
     “Wow! He talks!” I ignore the comment from one of the other men and keep focused on the kind man.  
     “Well, we are the police”, he explains, “and we had been given off comments about screams being heard around your area for a long time now by people who pass by.” I think I've heard of police before, and they're supposed to be good guys from what I recall. I take this in as he continues. “Since you live in the woods, no one was able to pinpoint where exactly the screams were coming from, but yesterday we were examining around the vicinity based off of the tips we got when we heard what I suppose was you yelling. Us and the other group of officers that were with us, including the chief, ran over and we came to help. When we found you beaten in the basement we arrested the old man that was there and took you out.  
     “But I have to say,” he declared, “I've never seen a winged man before, and neither had anyone else.” The other officers nodded in definite agreement. “The chief came and saw you and didn't know what you were, and that basement you were in looked like some kind of sci-fi movie with all the tubes and chemicals, so he ordered that we take you to the station to examine you.”  
     I took a minute to absorb all of this. Was I finally released from that hell that I lived in? Would I never have to see the Professor again?  
     “What's going to happen to me?” I asked. All of the officers stared at me with pity. None of them answered, and that worried me. I was going to ask again when the car slowed down and stopped. I sat up straighter as the officers stood up, opened some side doors, and walked out of the car. I heard them walking around when the back doors were opened to reveal them standing in front of me.  
     “We gotta take you out of the van,” one of them says to me. He reaches out and unlocks the cage to let me out. I stand up slowly and step towards them. I am aching everywhere and it pains me to walk, but they grab on to my arms and escort me away from the van and towards a building. I look around me in fascination. I've only been let outside by the Professor a few times to fly around, and that was during the night when it was dark. He would put a shock collar on me to keep me from flying away. I've never experienced this much of the outside world before, and the raw sunlight is extremely new to me. It's incredibly bright and my eyes can't handle it, so I squeeze them shut and keep walking along.  
     Soon we make it inside where I can open my eyes a little better. I am taken down a bunch of hallways while being surrounded by not only the three officers that were with me in the car, but many others who are forming a tight wall around me. I don't know if they think I'm dangerous or just too inhuman. After a while of walking I am put into an enclosed room. One of the men around me who I can only guess is the chief I've heard of addresses the group.  
     “I'll need someone to stay in the room with it while I have some discussions.” I find it kind of demeaning being called “it” over and over again. I'm just like any other man, only with a pair of wings.  
     “I'll stay,” offers the red-eyed man. He walks up to the front of the crowd and leads me into the room where the door is closed and the group walks away in an excited shamble. The room is much larger than the car and there is a table with chairs in the middle. I decide to sit in the chair and try to relax. I finally have the chance to spread out my wings in this open space, and I start to fix up my disheveled feathers. The man sits in the chair opposite me and watches me fix my wings.  
     “That's awesome,” he declared as he examines my black feathers. I am surprised at this statement and I turn to him. He looks me in the eye and gives me a big smile. He places his gun on the table and sits back in the chair. “So now I can introduce myself. My name is Gilbert Beilschmidt.” He extends his hand over to me from across the table. “You never told me what your name was.”  
I smile for the first time in a long time and put my hand in his.  
     “I'm Matthew Williams.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some business goes down at the police station. (Gilbert's POV in the middle)

     “So he created you in his lab?” Gilbert seemed to be very surprised by what I told him. I guess that sort of thing isn’t really normal out in the world.  
     “Yeah, I don’t really understand exactly,” I replied, “but he took a human sperm and egg and put it in a fake womb he created and them added some bird D.N.A to give me wings, and some other internal bird stuff.” It sounded pretty crazy when you said it out loud.  
     “So…” Gilbert furrowed his brow in thought, “he just put bird stuff inside of you.” After he said that he lifted his head and gasped. “It’s like Jurassic Park!”  
     I had know idea what he was talking about.  
     “Um…sure.” Soon after our introductions, Gilbert asked to know about what I was. We spent a while talking about me, but I still didn’t know much from him.             “Hey, why don’t you tell me about yourself”  
     He seemed excited that I asked and he beamed. “Well,” he started, “I’m from Germany and I moved here to Canada with my little brother and father.” The Professor would tell me things about the outside world every now and then, and from what I remember, Germany is a country somewhere in Europe. I guess that was the accent I heard. “We came here because my mother had died when my brother and I were kids, and my father had found a decent job here in America. There’s not really that much to me.” I could see him trying to find things to say. “I’m 24 years old, from the red eyes and white hair you could probably tell I’m albino,” he gestured towards his hair and face, “I can play the flute decently enough…and I’m a pretty awesome guy! That’s a summary of me.”  
     It was nice to have a conversation with someone like this. I rarely ever felt happy in the lab, but right now, I’m away, and it feels like bliss. While we were sitting in that room, Gilbert and I talked about just random things, most of which came from the latter. It was starting to seem like we were in that room for a long time when the chief walked in. He was a tall man with dark brown hair and fair skin. He looked over at me with an intense stare which kind of made me uncomfortable, so I pulled in my wings and scrunched up my body to seem smaller.  
     “Um…well…” he coughed a little and made a small glance towards Gilbert.  
     “His name’s Matthew,”  
     “Yes, Matthew,” he continued, “I’m sure you’ve realized now that you are not what most people would call, normal.” I could tell he was having trouble talking to me. He paused talking for a minute and fiddled with his tie, then looked up at me. There was an awkward silence in the room before he addressed me again. “I hope you aren’t offended by this, but, are you capable of speaking.  
     “Of course!”, I laughed, “I’m human after all, just with a bit extra.” I think that relieved the chief, and he calmed down a bit.  
     “Well Matthew, I'm going to need you to come with me.” I saw him pull out a pair of metal rings from his belt. “I’ll need to handcuff you. I hope you understand.” He gestured me to walk over to him, and I hesitantly stood up and approached. I didn’t really know what was going on, and I looked over at Gilbert for some help. He also looked a little uncomfortable and he stood up quickly.  
     “Chief Anderson, I don’t think that’s really necessary,” he started to protest. The chief scoffed at him.  
     “Beilschmidt, you’ve only known this…man, for about an hour. I’m just taking precautions.” He took both my arms and put them behind my back to lock them, but my wings were in the way, so he cuffed them in front of me. I was still very worried when I was practically dragged out of the room.

* * *

 

     I watched as Chief Anderson took Matthew away I the blink of an eye. After he closed the door behind him, I just stood there in the silence. _What just happened?,_ I thought. I didn’t see Matthew ever being dangerous, he barely even spoke above a whisper, and I didn’t know what the Chief wanted from him. I decided to go find out.  
     I picked up my gun from the table and walked out of the room into the hallway. I jogged around the building until I could find one of my partners that was with me when we found Matthew. “Hey Harrison!”, I called out to him as he was sitting down at his desk, “ did you go with Chief Anderson after I went into the room with Matthew?”  
     “Who?”, he asked.  
     “The bird man!”, I exasperated.  
     “Oh yeah!”, he recalled. “He held an emergency meeting with us. He said that it would be best to learn about the bird man as much as we could and send him off to the federal government to examine him. I mean, we’ve never seen anything like it before.” He took a bite off of his stereotypical doughnut and turned back towards his work. “He’s pretty interesting don’t you think? I’m supposed to start writing a report about him.”  
     “They’re shipping him away to have tests after he’s been locked away for years without his permission? What do they think he is, an animal?” Harrison gave me a knowing glance.  
     “I mean, he kind of is though.”  
     “But he’s also human!”, I exclaimed. The Chief was right that I’ve only known Matthew for an hour, but I at least know that he deserves to be treated like a human being, not some lab rat! This was making me pretty angry, especially since Harrison didn’t seem to care about it much at all, and I considered him a thoughtful guy. I tried to go find wherever the Chief took Matthew away to, but I couldn’t find it, and anyone I asked either didn’t know or told me I wasn’t allowed to know. I decided to go back to the room we were in because the Chief was sure to bring him back there. I made I to the room and sat down at the table. I noticed on the chair across from me was a single black feather.

* * *

 

     I was brought in to yet another enclosed space against my will, and frankly, that pissed me off a bit. I thought being outside of the lab would be different.  
I’m told to sit at a table while the Chief sits in front of me. “Now Matthew,” he starts, “I know this all seems a little scary to you, but I’m going to need you to be serious. You’re going to have to tell me everything about yourself and everything else you know.”  
     “Why?”, I ask in a faint whisper. When Gilbert asked me that, he was way more casual, but this guy is very intense. What did he plan to do with me?  
     “Because you’re a new discovery!”, he answered, “just think about it Matthew, your whole existence could change the world. Humans could evolve ourselves with your knowledge!”  
     “Why don’t you just ask the Professor? He did all of this.”  
     “The old man? Oh we can’t. He’s dead.” I didn’t know how or why, and I had extremely mixed feelings about the Professor's death, but I felt like I was backed into a corner.  
      So I told him everything.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alfred has some memories about Alfred.

     When I was brought back to the room where I suppose I’m being kept, I saw Gilbert sleeping with his head resting on top of his arms over the table. The Chief uncuffed my hands and led me inside. He glanced over at Gilbert and sighed.  
     “Beilschmidt!”, He hollered. Gilbert’s head spring up and he was immediately alert, shifting his eyes around. “Don’t out have work to do?”  
     “No, sir”, he replied, “you haven’t assigned me anything else for today.” The Chief took another moment to sigh and he held his temples in his hand. After I had told him everything there was to tell him when he interrogated me, he started to get a little annoyed. I don’t think I told him what he wanted to hear. I think he wanted me to be some kind of super advanced human, a new scientific discovery, but instead I was a good for nothing experiment for the Professor.  
     “Well,” the Chief directed towards Gilbert’s still groggy form, “your new task is to stay here and keep watch of Matthew here.” He simply left it at that as he turned on his heels and walked out, shutting the door behind himself. I stood in he middle of the room in silence, I didn’t really know what to do now.  
     “So, do I just sit here?”, I asked. Gilbert looked over at me and seemed confused.  
     “Are you supposed to stay here all night?”, he answered my question with another question. I thought about it for a bit.  
     “I don’t really have a home anymore,” I admitted, “ I’m not so sure as to what’s going to happen to me now that I’ve been…” I struggled to find the right word, “released.” He seemed to be saddened after hearing that, and a sympathetic look swept over his face. I wasn’t so sad about it as just lost. I’ve only ever lived in a captive, abused state, I didn’t know how to function away from it, and all of these experiences that I had never had before today have all been thrown at me in rapid fire. I was really overwhelmed for the most part.  
     “If you’re going to stay here, you need a bed,” he stood up and ran out of the room. He came back dragging a small mattress in a metal frame behind him. He placed it down in the corner of the room and pushed the table and chairs away to make more room. “Sorry, the bed’s not much, it’s all we have here. I just walked over to it and slowly laid down and put my head on the fluffed up pillow. I could feel myself smiling huge like an idiot and small tears sipping out of my eyes. I had never once in my life laid in a bed before.  
     “It’s perfect,” I told Gilbert with a grin. He appeared to be pleased with my approval and brought a chair over to sit next to me. He sat in silence for a while when he suddenly gasped slightly. He quickly pulled out a snack bar from his pocket and handed it to me.  
     “Nobody’s fed you yet haven’t they?” I didn’t even realize I was hungry until he mentioned it, but when he did, I was starving, so I graciously took the food and ate it. After I finished it, I felt all the events of the day tire me out, so I pulled out my wings to wrap around myself and pulled the blanket that was on the bed over me as well. I could see Gilbert watching me, but soon I had closed my eyes and drifted asleep.  
 

* * *

   

     “Again!”, I could hear the Professor scream as I lay down in my cage. I sat up and looked over across the lab to see him yelling at Alfred again. It seemed that he had accidentally knocked over something the Professor was working on. “Why must you act this way? You are so useless! All you do is screw things up!”  
     “I’m sorry!”, Alfred squeaked in desperation.  
     The Professor lifted his hand high and I could see Alfred stare in fear at the Professor as he was smacked right across the face. The momentum of it knocked him down on to the floor, and he landed on the stubs on his back. Alfred yelped in pain.  
     “Look at those things! They’re not wings! They’re not worth any pain!”, The Professor pointed at the bony, three inch stalks that poked out of Alfred’s back. “You are a failed attempt Alfred. Why do I keep you around? At least Matthew has wings, but you don’t!” Alfred was sobbing uncontrollably. I hated it when the Professor used me as a way to hurt Alfred’s feelings, and I hates to see him cry even more.  
     “Professor stop!”, I yelled uselessly as I threw myself at the bars of my cage to try and get to !y brother. The Professor didn’t even acknowledge me as he pulled Alfred off the ground harshly by his hair.  
     “I’m tired of you boy,” he raged, “I’m getting rid of you.”  
     “No!”, I screamed. I couldn’t let him take Alfred away. He was all I had and I was all he had. I tried to reach out to him while he was still bawling, and I saw him try to reach out to me too before the Professor yanked him harder towards his operating table. He threw Alfred on to it face down and strapped him to it.  
     “Don’t kill me!” Alfred begged as he thrashed around trying to free himself.  
     “Don’t be ridiculous!”, the Professor scoffed as he picked up a large knife. “I’m not a murderer! I’m just going to send you away, but I can’t have you out in the world with those failed wings on your back. I have to get rid of them.” He lifted the knife up and swiftly brought it down on Alfred’s right stub. It didn’t make it very far through the bone, but there was a pool of blood forming and he was screaming at the top of his lungs. I watched in horror as the gruesome deed was done. Soon enough, Alfred had passed out and the room was full of deadly silence as the Professor hacked away at my brother.

* * *

 

     “Matthew! Matthew wake up you’re screaming!” I felt my body being shared awake. I opened my eyes and saw Gilbert's own red eyes looking down at me with concern. I lifted my head and glanced around the room. “You kept screaming something about Alfred, and you were kicking and flapping your wings all over the place.”  
     “Sorry Gilbert.” I usually have that nightmare, but it’s really just a vivid memory. Every so often I dream about that day. “Alfred is my twin brother,” I told him. He let go of me and put on a questioning look.  
     “You never told me about a brother,” he said.  
     “It’s hard for me to talk about. The Professor sent him away to a foster home when we were just kids. I haven’t seen him since.” I sighed deeply and rubbed my head. I looked around me and saw a bunch of feathers on the bed. I guess I was flapping my wings in my sleep.  
     “Y’know,” Gilbert said in a thinking attitude, “our computers here at the station have a record of every legal document that’s happened in this town. There’s probably some paperwork for your brother from the foster home.” He beamed a me excitedly, “Maybe we could find out where he’s gone to!”  
     “Really?”, that statement woke me all up almost instantly. I jumped up out of bed and stood in the middle of the room. In my giddiness I threw my wings open and pulled Gilbert by the arms towards the door. “Let’s go find him!”

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew is on his own now.   
> P.S. My internet crashed for a few weeks so I couldn't update during that time. I'm really sorry about that. :)

     “You said his name was Alfred Williams right?”, Gilbert asked as he was searching the files on one of the police station's computer systems. I nodded my head while I cracked my fingers and nervously looked down at the floor. It’s been so long since I’ve heard of anything about my brother, and I suddenly don’t know how to feel now that I have information of him right in front of my fingertips. I listened to the tap of the keyboard as Gilbert searched for records.  
     “I think I’ve found something!”, Gilbert exclaimed as he stared at the large computer screen. “He was put into an orphanage here up in the country right?” I looked up at him and nodded yes. He gave me a bright smirk and jerked his head in the direction of the screen for me to look. I took a deep breath and slowly walked over beside Gilbert and examined the picture. In front of me I saw an old photo of a young blonde boy wearing a grim frown on a document that gave information about him marked at the top with the words, “Alfred Williams, Horizon Orphanage. Adopted by the name of Alfred F. Jones by an Arthur Kirkland and Francis Bonnefoy. Newly a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America.”  
     The face is saw was something I never thought I’d see again. I brought my hands over my mouth and I started to cry. Soon enough I had a stream of tears running down my cheeks and was over thrown by happiness. I turned over to Gilbert and, without really thinking about it, wrapped my arms around him in a shaky hug.   
     “I found him!”, I cried into his shoulder. I could feel him hug me in return and form a smile. He looked around and saw the other officers and staff staring at us, whether it was because I was crying or the fact that they still haven’t seen me and my bird-like state yet, I didn’t know. Gilbert eventually pulled me out of my impulsive hug and walked me back to the room by the hand past the audience I had created.  
     “People were staring,” Gilbert said to me sheepishly as I stepped through the door and sat down on my temporary bed. I rubbed at my tearing eyes and laughed with the biggest smile I think I’ve ever made. I flapped my wings around excitedly and almost hit Gilbert in the head with them.   
     “I have to go see him!”, I announced. I beamed at Gilbert to see his response. Certainly he’d help me find him, after all, I don’t have a home, so there’s no point in staying here, and I figured he was a new friend. What I didn’t expect to see was his sad frown that ran across his face. That disrupted my laughing and I lowered my wings so they could lay down on the bed still spread out. I was concerned at this sudden mood change. “What’s the problem?”  
     “Matthew,” he started grimly, he was reluctant to tell me at first, but then he took a breath and looked me in the eyes. “Chief Anderson has decided to take you to the federal government. He’s … he’s giving you away for them to...study you.” I sat there for a while in confusion, trying to get where this was coming from.  
     “He’s just sending me away?”, I whispered in disbelief. What was I, some kind of object? Gilbert seemed to lose some of his courage at my remark and looked away from me then nodded. “When?”, I asked. Gilbert shrugged and still refused to look my way. I sat in silence for a bit, but then I decided to do something. After living my entire life captive, I wasn’t going to give up the freedom I had just received. I quickly sat up, stared Gilbert in the eyes, and then ran out of the room.

* * *

 

     I watched in surprise as Matthew suddenly started to run. I quickly followed suit and ran after him. He ran through the halls blindly finding his way around since he doesn’t know the layout. He was like mouse in a maze, running around for an exit. He ran much faster than I anticipated and he soon found a door outside the building before I could catch him. He pushed through it and made his way out in a field of grass. It was dark outside and slightly humid because of recent rain. He stood in the empty grass, breathing in the air and looking up into the sky, but as I could see him spread out his wings, I knew he would try to fly away, so I sprinted towards him and jumped up at him right as he was taking off.  
     I managed to grab on to his ankles right as he left the ground. I could hear him yell as I pulled him down to the ground. “Where are you going?”, I yelled. I held him down to the ground and he tried to force his way out of my grasp. I'm a cop after all, I should be able to keep someone down. He started to scream, and it hurt me to see that he was scared of me at this moment after the time we spent bonding. After a while of squirming, I pulled him up to a position to sit up in the grass and look at me. I held him there by his shoulders and looked into his vibrantly purple eyes. “Were are you going Matthew?”  
     “I’m not staying here to be pricked and prodded!”, he hollered in a voice louder than I’ve ever heard him use before, it was almost as loud as a normal person’s yell. “Let me go!” He thrashed his arms and legs around violently. I tried to hold him , putting my whole weight on top of his smaller body, but he remained relentless. I kept him down for a while, and I was about to start drawing him back into the police station, but then he suddenly stopped moving, fell limp on the ground, and closed his eyes. I quickly got up in worry because he wasn’t moving or speaking.   
     “Matthew! Are you okay?” I shook his shoulders. I was about to pick him up when in the blink of an eye, he jumped up back on his feet and flew off into the air faster than any bird I knew. I reached up into the air uselessly as I saw his body fly away and grow smaller and smaller into the distance. I sat down defeated in the grass as his figure became a dot in the distance. I pulled at the collar of my shirt and sighed in disappointment. I’m usually awesome at this sort of stuff, what’s thrown me off of my game?  
     I knew that I had only just met Matthew only about a day ago, but my head was telling me I needed to find him. There’s no way that he could go out into the city alone and not get hurt, and it’s my job to protect, so that’s what I was supposed to do. I stood and marched off into the station. I printed out the information sheet on Alfred, assuming that Matthew was heading to find him, and found my way to my police car.

* * *

 

     I could feel the cold wind bite against my skin and the bandages that Gilbert had applied as I flew. I never wore a shirt because I could never fit any over my wings, so it was very cold around my chest and back. I had never explored the world outside of the basement before, so I had no idea where I was going. I knew where I needed to be though, Indiana. That’s were I knew there’s someone who could help me. I didn’t know exactly where Indiana was though, so I was going to have to find a map of some sort.   
     I flew for a few hours in the darks but the sun was starting to come up and shine it’s bright light on me. If anybody sees me out here, they might want to study me as well. I decided to just land somewhere forestry to hike on foot away from the public. I spotted a nice scene of high trees and a flat area of land that I could head for. I slowly maneuvered myself around the tree branches and landed on the flat clearing. I looked around to at least find a path I could take somewhere. I couldn’t find one at first, so I decided to take a break and I sat down on a rock nearby. I was tired of flying, and I felt pretty sad. I thought I had made a friend with Gilbert, but I don’t know why I even tried to put trust into anyone. I don’t know why I expected him to help me escape after he’d only just met me and had been a cop for a while longer. I sighed and held my forehead in my hands as I could feel tears start to form. They were struggling to break the barrier of my eyelids and fall out like little waterfalls.  
     I got up and pulled myself together by smacking my cheeks lightly. I’d done enough crying lately, I had to focus on what to do next and how to find a place to go. I wrapped my arms and wings around my body to keep warmer as I started walking into a random direction, hopefully one that brings me closer to my destination, and by the complaints coming from my grumbling stomach, somewhere with food. I pushed past the low hanging branches and thorns that surrounded me. I tried to listen for anything of use, but I was basically lost at this point. I probably should have thought this through. I kept on walking for a while until I came across a strange muffling sound. I walked closer to where it was coming from, and eventually broke my head through the tree barrier to see several cars parking around some kinds of pumps. Some of the passengers from a red truck, what seemed to be a little boy and his father, walked into a small building that was behind the pumps. The sign on the building said Gas Station.  
     I could see windows surrounding the walls of this gas station, so from my distance I tried to make out what was inside. I was too far away and couldn’t make out anything inside, so I would have to get closer. I looked around for something that could help me out, and I saw some sort of black tarp covering one of the cars in the back of the parking lot. I swiftly tiptoed over to it then pulled it off the car to wrap it over my back. It made me look like a hunchback, but at least my wings were concealed.   
     I didn’t really know if wearing car tarps over your back was a normal thing or not, but I opted to play it safe and keep a low profile as I walked into the gas station. Immediately I was hit wit bright lights and the smell of baking breakfast items. I walked around and I noticed that there were many varieties of food to eat, a lot of which I don’t thing I’ve ever tasted, let alone heard of. I excitedly grabbed lots of different snacks and drinks and formed a small pouch from the extra tarp that wasn’t hiding my back to hold all of my items. I walked around a little more and sure enough, I found a shelf full of maps. The Professor had taught me some about maps, not much because he figured I’d never need to use them, so I tried to remember what North America looked like, since I needed a map that also listed Indiana as well as Canada. I flipped through my options for a bit and found one that I was pretty sure was what I wanted. I took it and also found a small bag in need aisle that I could put all my things in.  
     Content with my haul, I carried myself towards the front door. As I was stepping out, the man that was standing behind the front counter called out to me. “Hey! You need to pay for those!” I turned around and realized what he meant. I forgot that people used money to get the things they wanted.  
     “Sir,” I replied, trying to sound nice, “I don’t have any food or money right now. I really need these things. Could you just help me out?” His face showed no signs of sympathy for me as he glared.  
     “Can’t do that young man, I got bills to pay and children to feed, so you’re gonna' have to pay up.” He looked at me expectantly, but I didn’t even have a few cents to my name. I needed this food though, and I needed a map to find my brother, so I had no choice.   
     I pushed through the front doors and made a run for the woods. I tried to keep very thing from falling out of my bag, but I think I dropped a small bag of chips. I could hear the man yelling at me and chasing, and I could tell he had a weapon in have hand as e was gaining on me, so I threw off the tarp and flapped my wings to fly away. When I made it into the air I looked down and watched as the man stared at me in wonder, but then anger returned on his old features. He lifted his weapon, which I now could tell was a gun, and he shot up at me. I quickly averted the aim and turned around to leave.   
     “I’m sorry!”, I called out towards the man as I flew farther and farther away. If it was this hard to keep myself hidden just to get food and a map, I didn’t know how I was going to make it all the way to Indianapolis.

  
  


 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew and Gilbert head towards Indiana.

     I drove down the road as fast as I could to get back home. If I wasn’t in my cop car, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten a speeding ticket for this. I swerved around streets and curbs until I had finally made it to my house. I parked in the driveway and walked up to my brick home and used my keys to unlock the door. I stepped in and was tackled by a little man with brown hair and a stray curl.   
     Feliciano.  
     “Gilbert!”, he whined into my ear as he grabbed me in a hug, “Luddy was worried about you because you didn’t come home last night.” I looked over Feli's head and saw my little brother Ludwig standing over by the living room and shaking his head with a small smile that doesn’t show up often. I was able to break free of Feli's tight embrace and walk over to Ludwig. I shook up his hair a little and cackled in amusement.  
     “Oh! So you do care about your big bro, don’t you Luddy?”, I smirked as his little grin turned back into his normal cold expression, except it did have a hint of annoyance in it this time. I took away my hand to end his torture and I walked over to the kitchen. I opened up the fridge and picked out myself some leftover wurst and spaghetti and placed it in the microwave for two minutes. “Well guys, I’m in a hurry today, so I can’t stay long.”  
     “Where are you going?”, Feli asked me as he walked over towards the kitchen island and rested his head in his hands with a big smile. His eyes, even though they were barely open, seemed to always be sparkling with some kind of childish curiosity. I didn’t really want to tell him that I was going to run over to America real quick to find a runaway birdman, but also didn’t want to leave him and Ludwig without telling them anything.   
    “Well…”, I began slowly, contemplating what to say. I could see Ludwig heading for the kitchen to join the conversation and his icy blue eyes staring into mine put a little bit of pressure on me. “…I have to find someone. They’ve run away to America and I have been given the assignment to get them.”  
     “A runaway criminal!” Feli exclaimed, “That sounds dangerous Gilbert.”  
     “He’s right,” Ludwig responded, resting his hand on Feli’s shoulder to calm him down a bit, “you don’t usually get these kinds of jobs. I mean, you’re leaving the country Gilbert! Don’t you think this is kind of short notice?”  
     “Sorry, but my boss can’t really call me two weeks in advance to tell me that someone is going to escape.” I felt bad about lying to them, but it was mostly truthful.   
      _BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_ The microwave was telling me that my food was finished, so I used that as an opportunity to finally turn away from the concerned looks Ludwig and Feli were giving me. Sometimes I feel like they treat me like a baby, even though I’m older than all of them. I grabbed my food out of the microwave and piled it from it’s Tupperware container into a normal paper bowl and plastic fork. Easy disposables. With my meal in hand, and all my other equipment packed already in my police car, I headed out to leave.   
     “Wait!”, Ludwig called out after me. “You’re already leaving? How long will you be gone?”   
     “I don’t know Luddy, but this is a very important person. If I wait too long, I could lose them. They’re faster than a normal person you know.” I heard quiet whines coming from Feli over in the kitchen looking at me.   
     “Well then, call me when you can.”   
     “Okay Luddy,” I replied, “love you guys.” With that, I walked out of the house and headed off.

* * *

 

     I can’t believe I had never tasted these things before! I mean, chocolate cookies! Cheesy chips! Flavored soda! Where has it all been?  
     I sat in a patch of pretty rough dirt as I ate my makeshift meal. All of the flavors that I had been shoving into my mouth for the past forty minutes all started to blend into one big kind of flavor that didn’t really taste as good as they did individually. I took that as a sign that I should stop and save the rest for later. I put the half empty packages into my bag and pull out the map in exchange. I licked off my fingers and then opened the map to look at it.   
     From the looks of it, I was already pretty close to the border with America already, right above what was labeled Minnesota. The problem was, I didn’t fully know how to read a map. I saw in the corner a sign with arrows that labeled north, east, south, and west. I guess my first step was to find out how to determine where those directions were. I remembered that once, on one of the rare occasions when the Professor let me outside to fly, I had noticed some kind of a green substance growing on the trees and rocks. The Professor was in a good mood that day, so I asked him what it was.   
_“It’s moss, Matthew,”_ he had answered, _“and you know what’s interesting about moss? It grows towards north, although, we’ll never need to use it when we’ve got compasses and GPS.”_  
     Well, right now I had neither of those, so moss will have to do. According to my map, I have to head southeast to get to Indiana. I hurriedly searched for any moss, and eventually found a small patch of it growing on the side of a tree. I turned towards the opposite side of the moss and just walked on forward. I decided that I’d only fly at night so I wouldn’t be seen, so this trip is probably going to take me a lot longer than I first thought it would.   
      I continued to walk towards the southeast and check for moss every so often, and soon enough, the forest had led me to a little river. I listened to the sound of the water running past as I sat down at the edge of the river in the mud. The water wasn’t moving incredibly fast, and I got pretty dirt really quickly once I left on this journey, so I decided to take a quick bath. I looked around for any people nearby, and I couldn’t hear or see anyone, so I figured the coast was clear.  
     I carefully pulled off my clothes and bandages. I checked my wounds now that they were freed, and the didn’t look too far along the lines of healing. I guess the glass that the Professor hit me with cut a bit deeper than I thought, but it had only been a little more than two days since then, so they weren’t going to be very healed either way by now. I was just a little disappointed that no one was here to help me with the bruises and cuts now, it was just me and my complete medical ignorance.   
     Once I was completely naked, I gingerly stepped into the water. It was really cold, but surprisingly clean. After a few moments of stepping in and out because of the temperature, I just jumped all the way in. The cold hit me like a slap to the face, but soon enough my body became used to it. I scrubbed all the dirt and sweat off of my body, cleaned out the cuts, and flapped my wings around in the water to get all my feathers wet. The experience actually turned out to be quite enjoyable, that is, until a low grumbling sound came lurking towards me.   
     I quickly snapped my head around in all different direction until I spotted a huge grizzly bear pawing his way towards me. My body froze in fear. I’d never encountered a bear before, and I’d heard enough gruesome stories about grizzlies to know that I shouldn’t be around any…in the middle of a river…covered in wounds…completely naked.   
.    I didn’t know if I should escape slowly or swiftly, but I’m pretty sure by the looks he was giving me that he was hungry, and I was a lot bigger than the little rabbits and fish he could be eating. My body started to shiver, not only because of the cold water, and I tried to slowly back my way out of there. As the bear walked closer, I walked farther away. I made it out of the water and picked up my bag and clothing, and tried to tiptoe away, but the bear suddenly growled loudly and ran towards me.   
     Without thinking I ran as fast as I could in a random direction, not bothering to put my clothes back on. The bear jumped over sticks and rocks while my naked feet felt the stabbing pain of running over them with full force. I didn’t want to fly away at risk of being caught by any people, so I just flapped my wings hard enough to push me up onto a large branch of a tree. I stood on the branch holding onto the tree as the bear made it to the bottom of the truck and roared up at me. My heart pounded in my chest and I was starting to hyperventilate. I grabbed onto my chest and leaned my weight against the tree as I tried to pull myself together.  
     As the bear hit the tree and growled at me angrily, I put back on my clothing and sat down on the branch. I didn’t have any new bandages, so I had to be careful about rubbing my bear arms against the rough tree bark. I breathes in deeply and looked up at the sky. Luckily for me, the sun was started to go down, and the bear would have to leave soon. In the meantime while I waited for that, I closed my eyes and held on to the tree, thinking about what the hell I was going to do next.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew faces some moral diemas.

     I drove on the highway until the sun came down and I was feeling too tired to drive. Instead of following a direct path to Indianapolis using my GPS, I had been driving around the outskirts of small towns or near woodlands, that’s where I figured Matthew would most likely be traveling. I had made sure to keep a keen eye out for any signs of him while I was driving, but so far I’ve seen none. I took a minute to take one more quick observation of the surrounding area before I decided to find a place to stay for the night. I drove for a couple more minutes longer until I reached a little motel with peeling paint and a blinking sign. I drove into the parking lot and walked into the lobby hesitantly. This place seemed kind of shady, but I was dressed in my police uniform and I had my weapons on me, so I figured that would be enough to keep any creeps or burglars away from me and my stuff.  
     As I stepped up to the counter I noticed the poor conditions of the floors and walls and the slightly ripped pieces of furniture. This motel was in the middle of nowhere, so I guess I shouldn’t have had high standards, but I was thoroughly disappointed since this probably meant I was going to have an uncomfortable bed tonight, but it was only for a couple hours, I could handle it. I looked forward towards the young girl who was working at the front desk who didn’t seem to notice my appearance as she had her nose stuffed into a rather large book. She seemed genuinely intrigued by the words she was reading, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she was doing working for this kind of place. Nonetheless, I waited a bit longer for her to notice me until I finally faked a cough into my hands.  
     The girl whipped her head up in surprise and threw her book off to the side once she realized I was here. She seemed to stiffen when she saw my uniform, but I didn’t try to look further into it, I just wanted a place to sleep so I could leave first thing in the morning.  
     “Sorry…officer, we just don’t get many customers. I figure you’re wanting a room?”  
     “Yes,” I replied, “one person for one night.” She nodded her head and wrote some things down on a paper before she walked over to the wall and grabbed one of the sets of keys that was hanging there. She handed me a sheet to sign and asked for twenty dollars. I gave up the cash and she daintily dropped the keys into my open palms and bid be goodnight. I chuckled at her obvious awkwardness and searched for the room number that I was given. Once I found it I opened the door and observed the room. As expected, the room had a beat up old mattress with a small table holding up a lamp and a window on the wall that didn’t quit close completely sending a light breeze through the room. I sighed and walked over to the little bathroom and took a nice warm shower.  
     I stood in the shower for a bit longer than I had anticipated. I kept my head under the warm spray of the shower head as I closed my eyes and thought about…well, everything. It seemed like just a few days ago I was complaining about the usual boring assignments that Chief Anderson would always give me, and now I was on a journey to America to find a birdman on the run. After a while I had noticed that I had somehow ended up sitting on the floor of the bath instead of standing. I wanted to stay under the warm stream for longer and just have some more time to relax, but I figured it wouldn’t be good for this place to put too much on their water bill, so I quickly washed my hair and my body and walked out of the shower. I put on a towel and bought a toothbrush and toothpaste from the front desk, causing the girl to become even more awkward due to my state of undress, then brushed my teeth and put on some underwear to go to bed.  
     Lying under the sheets with my head resting on the flat pillow, I couldn’t help but ask myself some questions. _Why are you going out of your way to find a man who doesn’t want to be found? Why do you have to be the one to find him? Don’t you think you owe it to your family and friends to put them ahead of your work?_ But perhaps the biggest question, __why is Matthew so important?__  
      _Well, because he’s a birdman!,_ I thought. How could that not be important? But I knew there was something more to him. I mean, it’s not like I was ordered to go find him by the Chief or anyone, and if I did find Matthew i obviously couldn’t bring him back to the station. They would just send him away like they had originally planned, and I could see from Matthew’s escape that that was the last thing the poor man wanted. Then why are you even trying to find him? You should just let him be free like he wants!  
     But I couldn’t help but feel compelled to do this. I had to find Matthew no matter what. I just couldn’t put a finger on why.

* * *

 

 

     I slowly opened my eyes as I found myself staring up at the sun. I groaned as my body ached everywhere, and I tried to shift my position when I suddenly felt my body starting to fall off of an edge. I groggily pulled myself back up onto whatever ledge I was sleeping on and rubbed at my eyes. As the world became more focused, I remembered that I had spent the night on a treetop. I watched as the sun shined bright up in the sky and I scolded myself for sleeping for the whole night. I could only fly in the dark without being detected, and now it was too bright to do that. I will have to continue to travel by foot today.  
     I sighed as I prepared myself to jump down to the ground when I glanced under me and saw the large bear lying at the bottom of the trunk. Damn! This thing was relentless! I thought it would have left by now. Well, if flying isn’t an option and walking wasn’t either, what am I going to do? I sit down on the tree branch hanging my feet off the edge and try to think up a plan of action. After several minutes with no safe solution, I narrowed it down to flying. All I had to do was discretely fly off over the trees far enough from the bear and then slip back down into the woods. If I could manage that, I can just continue on my course. After all, I haven’t seen any people walking around here so there really shouldn’t be a problem.  
      I hoist my supply bag over my shoulder and under my wings. I take a short moment to preen my feathers for flight, and then I make sure no one’s around before I shoot up into the sky. As I soar higher and higher I notice the beauty of daylight. I’ve never flown during the bright hours of the day time, and I never really knew just how much I can see when I’m in the air. Everything seems so peaceful when you look at the whole landscape, you can’t see any of the people who are hurting others or causing trouble, everyone’s just a little dot compared to the vast land. I could feel my attention start to waver as I focus on the beauty of the forest.  
     I shouldn’t have let myself become distracted like that, because a few seconds later I see out of the corner of my eye someone holding up a gun towards me from down below. I must have flown higher and longer than I anticipated, and now I’ve caught the eye of a human. Luckily, I was able to dart over in a different direction by the time I hear the gun go off. I could feel the bullet graze my leg just barely, but I didn’t look where I was going, so I ended up hitting by back against a large tree. I screamed out in pain as I could feel by right wing breaking and crumbling in on itself, and soon enough I was falling swiftly down towards the hard ground.  
     One of the bird like features the Professor gave me was very light bones, I can’t fly with dense ones, but that caused my bones to break very easily. I had already broken my wing and if I let myself crash into the earth I was going to break my legs too. I decided to force my arms out in all directions in order to try and grab onto a branch before I made impact. I thankfully was able to feel a tree nearby and after clawing at the bark and pulling myself closer I finally got a grip on a thin branch and I whipped my legs around the trunk. My body stopped falling just a few feet away from the ground.  
      I jumped off and landed wobbly on my bare feet and winced at the pain in my wing and on my bloodied fingers. I had ripped up my skin and nails trying to grab onto the bark. I wanted to check on my wounds, but I could hear a rushed sound coming from my left. I figured it was the person who shot at me, so my best option was just to run as fast as I could and hope for the best. I sprinted off and tried not to look back and only focus on the path ahead. My skin was given new cuts by the thorns and tree limbs that I pushed by and my old cuts were riddled with the dirt of the plants I passed, causing them to sting. I could feel my eyes start to water due to the pain and my general distress. I now started to hear shouts as well and I knew the hunter was gaining on me somehow.  
     If I kept running like I was, I was just going to make too much noise and lead the person right towards me. I needed to hide. I stopped in my tracks abruptly and surveyed the area. I saw a rather large pile of bush and forest debris off to my right and I knew that was the best I was going to get. I ran as quietly as I could over to it and pushed my body under the pile. I curled into a ball and covered all of my limbs, hissing at the weight being put on my broken wing, and formed a small whole for me to look out of. I tried to quiet my breathing as the noise grew closer and closer by the second.  
     Suddenly the hunter burst threw the brush and stopped right in front of my hiding pile. I could feel by body start to shiver in fear and my heart accelerate when the man looked around. He was an old man with a long beard speckled with white hairs. He wore plain colored clothes but held a giant gun on his side. He was carrying a large backpack on him no doubt full of even more hunting supplies. I watched as he eyed the area in confusion.  
     “Where did that thing go?”, he asked himself as he rubbed at his chin. He narrowed his eyes in a skeptical expression when he laid them on my hiding spot. I held my breath as he inched closer. A creepy grin grew on his face as he had no doubt narrowed down on my location. I started to panic, so as soon as I could see his ankles right in front of me, I threw out my arms, latched onto his legs, and pulled as hard as I possibly could. I mustered all of my strength to pull him down and then jump out of the bush to bash my elbow into his gut. As he lay on the floor I swiped the gun off of him and hit his head with the end of it. I could hear him moan and I turned the gun around so it was aiming towards him.  
     “Please…don’t,” he begged as I stared into his eyes with fear in my own. I didn’t want to hurt him, I could just run away, but I could see his arm inching its way towards his backpack, no doubt trying to grab another weapon. I wasn’t going to let myself be taken out that easily, not when I had my enemy pinned down right in front of me.  
     From all the encounters I’ve had in my life, I think everyone has made a point to prove to me that I’m not human. I’m an animal. Animals don’t live by mercy and what’s right or wrong, it’s survival of the fittest. I took shaky, hesitant breaths as I locked eyes with the hunter. I had a life that I wanted to start living, I had a destination. I couldn’t let this one man take all that away from me for whatever reason he shot at me for. I felt myself become ridden with feeling of hatred and spite over how humans have treated me, there was no reason to spare this one. I pointed the heavy gun right between his eyes and held it as still as I could. I felt my face form into an expression of malice as I kept our gaze strong and watched the terror and dread build up in his old wrinkled eyes. I took one final breath and held it as I pulled the trigger.  
     I never realized just how animal I really was until felt his warm blood envelope my face.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert finds someone in the forest.

_Oh no!_  
     All of the hatred and coldness I felt immediately vanished and was replaced with panic and regret as I looked down at the hunter's still body lying on the ground, his head completely mutilated and blood soaking everything around it, including me. I dropped the gun on the floor and covered my mouth firmly with my hand to keep from throwing up. Unfortunately, my hand also had blood on it, so I ended up feeling even more nauseous. All of a sudden my legs gave out and I crumpled to the floor, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of the man.  
     I had done that. I killed that man in cold blood. I tasted the salty tears that were now gushing out of my eyes at this point. What have I done? I curled in on myself and tried to ignore the sharp smell of blood and the gruesome image in front of me. I rocked my body back and forth while my breathing quickened. I knew I had to get going, I knew that if I stayed here for too long others would find me just like this hunter did, but the only thing I could think about right then was the horrible action I just committed.

* * *

 

     I was starting to get both bored and frustrated at the same time. After hours of driving and searching I still haven’t found Matthew. I knew that it wasn’t going to be that easy, and I did stop during the night to stay in that hotel, but it was still irritating nonetheless. I sighed deeply as I kept watch on the road and munched on a protein bar I had stashed away in my cop car. I was about to turn on some of my favorite rock music when I drove by what seemed like a commotion on the outskirts of a very small town surrounded by forests.  
     I slowly reversed the car to get back to the scene. There I saw a large group of people talking to a local sheriff and pointing up at the sky above the trees. The group looked to be made of about twenty people and they all had concerned looks on their faces. Once I had reached the area I parked my car and walked over to the party. The sheriff saw me and offered a confused stare at my approach. I pulled out my badge and held it up towards the audience.   
    “Hello, my name is Officer Beilschmidt,” the group slowly ended their frantic speaking to focus on me. “I have been traveling in order to find a specific person and I happened to notice you guys. I came to see if you know anything about the man I’m looking for.” I wore a serious expression as a middle aged woman with soft features walked up to me.  
     “Well sir,” she hesitated to tell me whatever it was that was on her mind, but I flashed her a small smile to hopefully show her that she should have no trouble talking to me. She seemed to relax herself at that. “We all here saw a man earlier this morning…who seemed to be flying. It looked as if this man had huge black wings, and I know that sounds impossible, but it’s true.” I gasped at her words. I was close to Matthew!  
     “That’s exactly the person I was looking for!”, I exclaimed. The sheriff gave me a skeptical look but the woman and the others around her seemed to light up.   
     “Really?”, she gawked in awe, “you believe me? Thank God! We were trying to tell the sheriff this but he just wouldn’t listen!” The sheriff cringed as the woman waved her arms dramatically towards him.  
     “Can you tell me anything else about the man you saw?”, I asked.  
     “Well, I am kind of worried for him. I couldn’t see him very well from how high he was, but I did hear the sound of a gunshot and I saw him fall down into the trees. I hope he’s okay.” The rest of the men and women nodded their heads in agreement, but Gilbert felt a weight hit him in the gut. Did Matthew get shot? Is he okay? I took little moment to think about my next actions before I bolted off towards the forest in search of Matthew. He was in trouble and he needed my help!  
I ran and ran as fast as I could. He had to be here somewhere, I just needed to find him. I pushed past the overgrown plants and thorns and looked for any signs of where he could be. I couldn’t find any footprints in the dirt or any signs of activity, but I continued to run until I could start to feel my body weaken. I was breathing far too heavily and I could feel my legs ache, so I stopped moving and took a break and laid my back against a large tree.  
     I panted heavily and looked up to the sky. I rubbed at my face and sighed as I covered my eyes with my hand. I’m so close to finding him but I don’t know how I’m supposed to pinpoint his location out of the entire forest. I slowly bent my knees and lowered my body along the tree trunk until I was sitting in the dirt. I held my head in my hands as I stared down at the ground trying to think of a plan. I closed my eyes to concentrate when I heard a soft noise in the distance.  
     I jolted my head up and tried to listen. It sounded like some sort of whimper coming from my left. I leaned my head in that direction and I could just barely make out the sound of quiet crying. I lifted up my body so that I was standing again and I slowly and stealthily walked over twigs and plants in that direction. As I got closer I saw small splotches of red liquid, it looked to me like a blood splatter. Immediately I grew worried that Matthew had gotten hurt from the shots that were fired and I sped up my pace and sprinted to where the blood was headed.             After just a few seconds, I had made it into a small sort of clearing where I saw to bodies on the ground. One of them was a dead old man and the other was Matthew.  
     “Matthew!”, I exclaimed, “are you okay?” I ran towards him and squatted down next to him. He was sitting on the ground with his legs curled up to his chest. He was crying into his arms and only one of his large wings was wrapped around his body, the other was bent onto several disturbing directions. When Matthew heard me shout and come towards him, he lifted his head in surprise and gasped. I noticed that he was preparing himself to get up and run.  
     “No! I’m not going to take you back to the station”, I tried to assure him, holding out my arms and open hands to show him that I didn’t have a weapon, “I was just trying to find you. I was really worried about you.” I watch as his tear stained face relaxes only slightly, but his whole body still remains tense and alert. He looks back at the body in front of him and he immediately returns to the grief stricken tone he was in previously.  
     “Look what I’ve done,” he whispers to me with an extreme sense of melancholy, “I didn’t have to kill him…but…” he struggles to continue. I don’t know what to think. I’ve dealt with murderers before, but they were all cold blooded and seemed proud of their deeds, but as Matthew gazed upon the body I could see the evident regret and disgust he had at his own actions. Although I didn’t get to know him very well so far, I could tell he wasn’t the kind of person who would kill someone for the sake of murder, especially since he didn’t know much about the outside world. Of course, I didn’t know the whole story, and my assumptions could be wrong, but I decided the best thing to do was comfort him.  
     In any different situation, I probably would have been more shocked and become sick of the sight and smell of a dead body, but for some reason at this moment the only thing I could focus on was Matthew. I slowly stepped over the carnage and knelt down next to him. I knew he was covered in blood, but I ignored that and gently wrapped my arms around his back and under his wings and slowly rubbed his back. His body sat rigid at the contact, but eventually he loosened up and hugged me in return while sobbing into my shoulder.  
     “What’s….wrong…with me?”, he asked in between sobs. I needed to know more, so I released him from the hug but held onto his shoulders as I looked him in the eyes. They used to be such a calming purple tone, like that of a columbine flower, but now they were dulled and grey.   
     “Tell me what happened,” I said. His face scrunched up in hesitancy and he shifted his eyes anywhere but my own. He tried to look down at the ground but I gently kept his head up with my hand under his chin and waited until he looked at me again. “Look, I can only help you if you tell me what happened. I’ve already told you, I’m not here because I was ordered by the chief to find you or anything like that. I came trying to find you because I didn’t want you to get hurt. If you just talk to me we can figure stuff out and I’ll help you find you’re brother,” his face lit up slightly at the mention of Alfred, “do we have a deal?”         He reluctantly nodded his head.  
     “I was flying above the trees trying to get away from a bear when that man shot at me. I hit a tree and broke my wing, and when I tried to hide he found me. I knocked him down and took his gun, and I could have just ran away, but I was so scared and angry so I-”, he cut himself off. I didn’t need his word to figure out what happened next, I had a body lying next to me to tell me all I needed to know. “I don’t know what came over me…I just couldn’t stop…”   
     “Matthew,” I cut him off, “it’s called self defense. I know it’s scary out here, but honestly, I can’t tell you that I could have taken the situation any better,” I wasn’t really sure where I was going with this, but the words just decided to pour out of my mouth. “Please don’t cry, that’s not going to make this go away. The only thing we can do now is try to move on. Now, stand up with me.” I held out my hand to him and pulled him up. I surveyed the scene. I’ll have to report this to the area’s sheriff, this man no doubt has a family here, and someone would come across him eventually, but I had to think of how to do this without getting anyone in trouble. Matthew did kill him in self defense, but if I told the authorities that there would have to be a trial to prove it, and I can’t really reveal him to the public.   
     The only thing I could think of was to make up a story.   
     I told Matthew to hide somewhere deeper into the forests while I dealt with the situation. I preceded to walk out and inform the sheriff of the murder. I led him to the area and pointed out the gun that was used to kill him. Since Matthew didn’t have any finger prints in any files, and because he didn’t have any legal documents actually proving his existence, I figured it would be fine to let the sheriff analyze the weapon. I knew that the case would forever go unsolved, and I felt bad for any of the man’s family and friends, but I had to protect Matthew. I somehow managed to bid the sheriff and local townspeople a farewell amidst the chaos and left. I walked away far enough to be able to go back into the forest without being noticed to find Matthew. Once I found him hiding on top of a short tree, I brought him back to my police car.  
     “So,” I started as Matthew slowly slid into the passenger seat of my police car, “Indianapolis right?” Matthew nodded his head as he awkwardly stared out his window. He seemed unsure of himself inside of a car.  “You gotta put on your seatbelt,” I chuckled and helped him to fasten his on, “and then you need to put on some music!”   
     “I’ve never really listened to any music before,” he replied. I could tell he was curious, and I would normally play some rock or metal,but I figured that Matthew would prefer a softer tune. I thought for a moment before I came to a conclusion in my head. I grinned as I plugged the aux cord into my phone and searched for the song in mind. “I think this one will suit you.” I watched Matthew as the sweet melody of a guitar filled the car and he perked his head up and listened intently. His face filled up with a childlike wonder and I could see some of the vibrancy return to his eyes. I leaned back in my seat and pushed on the gas as the lyrics began.   
     

_Blackbird singing in the dead of night_   
_Take these broken wings and learn to fly_   
_All your life_   
_You were only waiting for this moment to arise_


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matthew remembers a moment with Alfred.

     After hours and hours of driving, the sky became dark and Gilbert finally pulled into the parking lot of a building with a sign that said “MOTEL”. I wasn’t really sure where we were, but I was saddened when Gilbert shut off the car and the music stopped playing. He had played so many songs for me, some of them sounding relaxing and some of them sounding like there was an epic battle between heaven and hell was going on, but I enjoyed all of them so much.   
     “Where are we?”, I asked.   
     “We’re at a motel,” he answered, “it’s a place that provides a place to stay for the night for people who are on the road, like us.” Gilbert took off his seatbelt and I followed his lead and walked out of the car with him towards the front door. I stopped where I was when I remembered that I couldn’t go in there without my wings disguised. Gilbert knew that too, and he pointed to the side of the building. “Wait out here by the windows. I’ll get a room and when I’m in I’ll open up the window for you to come in.” I nodded and did what I was told.  
     I wasn’t really sure why I trusted Gilbert so much. If I wanted to I could have just ran away right when he stepped into the building and couldn’t see me anymore, but for some reason I felt safe when he was around. In any case, he was giving me a route to my brother that didn’t involve bears or hunters, so that was a good enough reason as any to stay with him. I waited for a minute or two longer until I saw a light turn on from one of the windows and a curtain was pulled back to reveal Gilbert’s huge smile facing me. He opened up the window and I carefully climbed in, but I did feel a sharp pain as my broken wing scraped over the window frame and I bit my lip to keep from yelling too loud.  
     When I made it inside I quickly found the bed and sat on it so I could finally spread out my wings and give the broken one some attention. It was bent in multiple angles and it did have some bleeding. It had been hurting this whole time, but I managed to ignore it long enough. I couldn’t think of any way to fix it and I felt distress build up in me while trying to think of a solution.  
     “Here,” Gilbert started as he reached out the window to grab a large stick and walked over to me, “maybe I can help.” He took the bottom edge of the blanket sheet and ripped it into a long strip. He muttered an apology to the motel staff as he did it. He then took my wing and warned me about the pain as he bent it back into position. I almost screamed my lungs out but he gave me the stick to bite on and muffle the sound. Once my wings were back in order he took the stick and ripped up sheet and wrapped them onto my wing.   
     “I’m no doctor, but I think this makeshift splint will have to do for now.” He seemed unsure of his work, but after the initial pain was gone I was already feeling a bit better. I smiled at him in thanks and he lightened up at it. “Well, we better get to bed,” he said, “and tomorrow we’ll get breakfast in the morning. But first, you’re gonna wear these,” he handed me a pile of clothes he pulled out of a bag he brought with him from the car. “I’m pretty sure you’ve been wearing those clothes since before we found you, I think it’s about time you had some clean ones.”   
     All I had on now was my old ripped up pair of beige pants and underwear. I felt so grateful for the outfit, but I wasn’t too sure how I would fit the shirt over my wings. Nevertheless I changed into the jeans he’d given me and soft socks. I tried to put the black T-shirt on, but it wasn’t working.   
     “I just don’t think shirts are going to work,” I told Gilbert in defeat. He simply took the fabric from me and precisely ripped out two large holes from the back of the shirt and gave it back.  
     “Put you’re wings through them,” he instructed. I gently eased my wings through, being especially careful with the broken one, and after some struggle came out fully clothed. I never knew that a shirt could bring such warmth to my body until now. I gratefully relished in the feeling as Gilbert stepped over to the light and switched it off. I was left sitting on the bed in the dark when he climbed in next to me.   
     “I could only get a room with one bed since I had to sneak you in, so we’ll have to share,” he informed me. I didn’t mind at all really, a bed was a bed and I would never take the privilege for granted after my whole life sleeping on the floor of my cage. I wriggled myself under the blanket next to Gilbert. I spread out my left wing over my own body like I usually do as well a Gilbert’s.  
     “Thanks for the shade,” he chuckled. I smiled in the darkness as I could feel my eyes grow heavy. “Goodnight,” he said.  
     “Goodnight.”

* * *

 

     “Now look here Alfred,” I heard the Professor hiss at my brother as I slowly became aware of my surroundings. I was in the lab and sitting in my cage as the Professor pulled Alfred out of his own, Alfred wobbly steeping out since the Professor preformed a surgery on him just a day ago,  “I’ve put a bomb inside of your chest. You see, I’m sending you to an orphanage out in the city because I don’t need you here anymore wasting up my space and food, but I can’t have you telling anyone out there about me.” Alfred is obviously frightened at the Professor's words and he stiffens up as tries not to wriggled too much in his tormentor's grasp. The Professor holds out a small box with a button on it in front of Alfred. “If you tell anyone about me and they come trying to find me, all I have to do is press this neat little button and you’ll be reduced to a hundred disgusting pieces of you. Do you understand?”  
     Alfred shakily nods up and down while his lip trembles, but he knows better than to cry, that would lead to more pain on his part. After a few moments the Professor seems satisfied with his fear and throws him back in his cage.   
     “I’ll drive you out to town tomorrow.”  
     Alfred slowly sits up in the middle of his small cage and rubs at the small stumps on his back in a tick of nervousness. Since his cage is right next to mine I crawl over towards him and hold my arms out through the bars at him. He sees me and then comes over to give me a hug. It isn’t very comfortable due to the metal bars in between us, but I think it makes him feel better to know that I’m here. Now that the Professor has left, Alfred allows himself to cry softly.  
     “I don’t want to leave you!”, he wallows. A part of me is sad that I have to be parted from him as well, but there is a bigger part of me that knows that he’ll actually be happier. We don’t really know our exact ages, but we’re somewhere around the age of 8. Alfred could leave here and get adopted into a new family and be treated as human with love and support for the rest of his entire life. For all I knew, I could be stuck in this lab until the day I died, and I didn’t want Alfred suffering that as well. I told him that into his ear, and he sniffled as he looked at me.  
     “But what about you?”, he asked. I spread out my still growing wings and pointed at them with my finger.  
     “As long as I have these, I’m going to be the Professor’s lab rat.” I could see Alfred's expression darken at the words. Looking at him in this state hit me in the chest and I started to cry myself. “I’m really going to miss you.” We hugged each other again until it was our bedtime and the Professor came in to shut the lights off. In a couple of hours he would be taking away my brother forever and I just didn’t know how to deal with it, but I knew that Alfred was the one who really needed some support. In the darkness I felt for one of my largest feathers and pulled it out.  
     “Alfred!”, I called out to him. I heard him shuffle around and crawl over to my cage.  
     “Yeah?” I stuck out my arm until I could feel his own and then placed the feather into his palm.   
     “Keep this,” I instructed, “so you can have a piece of me forever no matter where you go.” I waited a couple seconds then said to him, “I love you.”  
     “I love you too Mattie,” he replied in a weak voice. I’m not sure what he did afterwards, but by the time I woke up on the morning, there was nobody sleeping beside me and all I had was the dreadful silence of the lab.

* * *

 

     In the morning we woke up, got in the car, and continued on our journey. I noticed that the leaves on the trees were turning a vivid red color as we drove by them. I savored the beautiful sight as Gilbert stopped in a parking lot and told me to wait in the car. When he got back he had a bag in his hand. He slid into the driver’s seat and pulled out two white boxes and handed one to me. I opened mine slowly and saw a stack of what seemed to be a pastry covered in some sort of syrup.  
     “What is it?”, I asked in wonder, taking the plastic fork that was handed to me.  
     “It’s pancakes, Birdie!”, Gilbert exclaimed, “You’ve never had pancakes before?” I shook my head no and was eager but hesitant to eat it. “You’re gonna love em',” He assured, “they’re awesome!” I guess that was a good enough confirmation for me. Before I knew it I had the pancakes piles into my fork and shoved into my mouth in what has to be a record time. Gilbert laughed at me as I licked up the syrup that covered my face. As I chewed I realized that I had just found the missing piece in my life. If I had thought the food I stole from the gas station was incredible, then this meal had to be on a godly level.  
     I swiftly finished up all of what was in my box, and when Gilbert said he was full, I gladly cleaned up his plate as well. Gilbert continued to laugh as we drove off down the highway. After maybe half an hour, Gilbert turned the music down lower and glanced over at me.  
     “So, tell me about Alfred,” he said, “what kind of character can I expect from him when I meet him?” I didn’t really anticipate the question, but I didn’t think there was any harm in answering it.  
     “Well, I haven’t seen him In a very long time, so I can’t really speak for how he’ll be like now, but when we were little he always had a kind of bubbly nature to him. Although, whenever the Professor was around, that personality seemed to disappear completely.” I smiled up at the sky and my heart filled with nostalgia as I remembered the time I spent with my brother, which was really the only time I was ever happy. “Alfred loved to make up stories about brave heroes when we were bored just sitting in our cages waiting for the next round of tests to happen. He always dreamed of being someone who could help others and save the day, even if he thought he would never see the outside world. He did get annoying at times, but that’s to be expected from a brother I guess.” I turned to look at Gilbert and noticed the smile he was wearing on his face. “What about your brother?”, I asked, “What’s he like?”  
     “Well he’s just a big old stick in the mud,” he chuckled. “He never wants to have fun. He’s pretty serious most of the time, and he hardly ever smiles, which is really a shame since he was born with our mother’s perfect teeth.”   
     “Has he always been like that?”, I asked. After living with Alfred as a child it was hard to think of a kid acting so seriously.  
     “Pretty much,” He replied, “Mother died when he was very young, and I guess since I was always so childish he decided to become my mother figure, which is kind of embarrassing. I mean, who wants their little brother telling you not to play with your food or run with scissors? He’s really strong though, no kid ever messed with him on the playground, well, except for Feliciano. He was an Italian boy who transferred to our high school and he would always bother Ludwig all the time, sticking to his side at every moment. Luddy acted like he didn’t like him, but now he’s his boyfriend so I guess he was just a little shy.”   
     “What’s a boyfriend?”, I asked. I’d never heard that word before. Gilbert seemed confused that I didn’t know what that was, but he explained it anyway.  
     “Well, you can have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, and that is a person you love a lot, but not like how you love your family and friends, but in a more emotional way. Like you couldn’t live without them.” I wondered what that kind of feeling was like.  
     “Do you have one?”  
     “I’ve had a few girlfriends and a few boyfriends, but they never really worked like they should have. I guess I’m just waiting for the right person to come along.”  
     I sat still and looked out at the horizon as I imagined what it would be like when I met a person like that too.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note
> 
> Hello! So this is my first ever story. I like to write and I thought that I should put out my stories for other people to enjoy as well. I don't promise that this will be beautifully written, and I don't know how often I'll update, but I hope you had a good read! :) Not much happened here, but I hope to add more fun stuff in the later chapters. And yes, I do intend to make this Prucan, because that's my favorite. This is also on fanfiction.net if you want to see it there.Well then, goodbye!


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